Via the WSJ's Corruption Currents blog I see that the University of Houston Law Center will offer an interesting new course to law students in the spring called "International Corporate Compliance." The course will be taught by former AUSA Ryan McConnell, who is now a partner at Baker & McKenzie LLP, as well as Jay Martin, chief compliance officer at Baker Hughes Inc, and Charlotte Simon, a law clerk for a federal judge in Houston.

According to the course syllabus, corporate compliance is now one of the fastest growing markets for legal services, and the course "is the first of its kind in U.S. law schools."  The goal of the course is to teach students how to build and manage an effective corporate compliance program, and it will focus on substantive topics including:

corporate codes of conduct and compliance policies;

training;

"hot topics" in corporate compliance, including the FCPA, data privacy, trade control compliance and environmental risk;

internal audits and internal investigations; and

using data analytics in compliance programs

The WSJ reports that the course comes on the heels of a successful symposium on compliance that McConnell helped organize in June of this year that was well-attended by lawyers and other business representatives.  Richard Alderman, an associate dean at the University of Houston Law Center, said that “in light of the way law firm employment is going, anything to give our students a leg up is welcome.”

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